Ireland and the Vatican: The Politics and Diplomacy of Church-State Relations, 1922-1960 by Dermot Keogh (review)

126BOOK REVIEWS between 1926 and 1939- Ln fact, Agostino's treatment of the changing relationship between France and the Holy See draws scholarly attention to a previously neglected theme in the papal history of this period. The examination of French and Italian opinion alone was a prodigious task and yet Agostino leaves unanswered many questions about similar states of opinion in the United States, Great Britain, or even Nazi Germany during this pontificate. Given, however, the historical methodology offered by this book, Agostino has provided both a means and a direction for subsequent scholarship . Peter C. Kent University ofNew Brunswick Ireland and the Vatican: The Politics and Diplomacy of Church-State Relations , 1922-1960. By Dermot Keogh. (Cork: Cork University Press. 1995. Pp. xxvi, 410. £37.50, $62.00 hardcover;£17.50 paperback.) Ireland may still be known to some as "the island of saints and scholars," but few would know of the extraordinary importance that Irish diplomats placed upon Ireland's "special relationship"with the Holy See in regard to international affairs. The tendency of Ireland's accredited representatives to the Holy See to view Irish foreign pokey as an adjunct to that of the Vatican, highlights the profound influence of the CathoUc Church upon the Irish people. This tendency and its eventual demise are examined in Dermot Keogh's meticulously researched and ifluminating study of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and newly independent Ireland. It is only in recent decades that Ireland has shed some of its traditional piety as a concession to modern consumer culture and Europeanization. However, for all the change that has occurred,including the recent successful referendum on divorce, Ireland remains to this day the most devout CathoUc nation in Europe . The Irish people continue to find great solace in their faith, and it can be argued that this condition exists due to the strenuous efforts of successive Irish governments to cultivate and encourage the role ofthe CathoUc Church in Irish society in the period under study. Keogh's focus is designed to iUuminate the nature of 'high poUtics' between Ireland and the Vatican, and as a result,there is Uttle to be found concerning the role of the clergy in local poUtics—where priests and nuns carry considerable weight on advisory boards and councils and in local organizations. Yet, as such matters are not the proper focus of Keogh's study, this is hardly unexpected. The concern for a moral and civil body poUtic since the founding of Ireland as an independent nation in 1922 seems to have been uppermost in the minds of both statesmen and churchmen alike. It was not enough for Irish men and women to be soUd citizens; they were to be servants of God as weU. BOOK REVIEWS127 Clearly,the pageantry and solemnity ofthe 1932 Eucharistie Congress held in Dublin combined to serve as a vast profession offaith in which poUtics and spirituaUty combined to reinforce devotion to botli church and state. Prominent Irish leaders, such as Éamon de Valera sought to protect the nation from the crass materialism and moral decadence of the outside world by asserting the right of die state to ensure the spiritual development of the population, by recognizing the special position of the CathoUc Church in Irish society. Amidst die destruction ofWorld War II, the safety and sanctity of Rome as a center of faith preoccupied the Irish clergy and laity, and Keogh provides a fascinating account ofthe efforts ofThomas Kiernan.the Irish chargé d'affaires to the Holy See, in ensuring that Rome be designated an 'open city' and in providing refuge for allied prisoners. In the postwar era,Joseph Walshe, die Irish Ambassador to the Holy See, despaired at the progress of communism in Italy and feared the total coUapse of Christian civiUzation along with the possible martyrdom of Pius ?? in Rome. Walshe's alarmist reports led to some £60,000 being raised by pubUc subscription in Ireland to fund the efforts of Luigi Gedda and the Christian Democrats in defeating the Popular Democratic Front in Italy's April, 1948, elections. Relations between Ireland and the Vatican were not always perfecdy harmonious . Upon the death of Ireland's popular and...